Movie Night
by BehindTheseWalls
Summary: Tony takes Ziva to see Toy Story 3D


**A/N: I wrote this story a while back and have only now plucked up the courage to actually let other people read it. I hope you find it as fun to read as it was to write, it was my first attempt at Tiva fic (though I have now written many!) If people like it I will post some of my other stuff. Anyway, enough of my rambling, enjoy it, and of course, I own nothing but the idea! **

Movie Night

The movie theatre was packed out with patrons eagerly waiting to be let in for the 7:00pm movie. Tony could barely contain his excitement as he swayed back and forth from his right foot to his left as he stood in line at the concession stand.

"You are like a puppy dog at Christmas, what is the matter with you?" Ziva asked, looking up at the excitable face of her partner.

"Actually, it's just puppy dog, or a child at Christmas, I don't think a puppy would really care if it was Christmas or not… although, they do seem to like that shiny wrapping paper…" he looked into the distance in thought for a split second. "Huh…" he sighed. He shook his head as though to snap himself back to reality. "Anyways, this film Ziva, this franchise, it _redefined _an entire genre of movies!"

"But it is a child's film, why are all these people here for it?" she asked observing the large amounts of adults loitering in the lobby. Tony put his hand to his mouth, eyes wide in shock.

"Oh Ziva, this is so much more than a kids' movie. I have been waiting 11 years for this sequel, 11 years! Do you know how much anticipation can grow with 11 years to think, to ponder, to yearn?" he asked.

Ziva laughed her manic cackle. "And what will you do if this movie does not live up to your expectations?" she questioned. Tony's face dropped instantly. "It would appear you have not considered this option, no?" she smiled.

"If you had seen the first two movies, then you would know that there is no way this movie could be anything but genius."

"Yes, but I have not seen them, so what am I even doing here?" she responded.

Tony looked a little sheepish and his gaze dropped to the floor for the briefest of moments before he pulled out his DiNozzo charm and attempted to spin a complex lie.

"Well Zee-vah, we are friends, and in America, one friend might ask another friend if they would like to accompany him to see a movie, and when the other friend agrees, they go. I know, I know, its madness, but that's the way we do things in this crazy, mixed up country of ours." He explained.

Ziva raised one eyebrow.

"Your date cancelled, yes?" Ziva asked. Tony rolled his eyes and nodded; he hated how easily she read people. "Found out you wanted to see a children's movie and decided to cut you loose?" She looked at her partner, expecting him to be hurt, he hated it when women cancelled on him, although he would always try his best to disguise it; the 3 times McGee had found himself super glued to his keyboard, the 2 times he found salt in his coffee and the time Tony planted cat hair in his desk were testimony to that. Instead he just shrugged and flashed a typical Tony grin that lit up his entire face.

"Well if she can't embrace a man's inner child than she is not right for Anthony DiNozzo." He said.

"I think "inner" child is a slight exaggeration, the child in you is very prominent." Tony playfully slapped Ziva across the back of the head, to which she responded with a sharp jab in his upper arm.

The queue didn't seem to be thinning out much which meant Tony had more time to decide what the perfect combination of treats would be for the movie. He was staring in awe at everything neatly arranged behind the counters and marvelling at the sweet scent in the air which filled his nostrils and tickled his taste buds.

"Easy boy." Ziva said tapping her hand against Tony's cheek. "They probably do not want your saliva all over their counter tops!" she giggled.

Tony immediately dabbed at the side of his mouth where a tiny drop of drool was beginning to slide; he couldn't help himself, the movies always made him crave sweet treats.

"If you'd ever eaten any of this stuff, you would know why I'm drooling." Tony said.

"I have no idea what half of it is."

"That's all part of the fun!" Tony grinned. "That mysterious moment when you bite into a candy bar and you have no idea what's waiting on the inside, is it solid chocolate, is it fondant, could it be nougat, or maybe cookie, it's all part of the exhilarating experience!"

"Yes… you do like to live dangerously…" Ziva said, clearly not impressed.

The two of them finally approached the front of the stand and the uniformed cashier gave a half hearted smile as he questioned what they would like to order.

"Yeah, I'd like to get a bag of the strawberry twizzlers, um, a bag of pretzel M&M's," Tony's eyes darted around the stand, terrified he might miss something. "Err, I'll take a small bag of the Reece's pieces and the mega combo deal with sweet popcorn and a cola please." He smiled as the cashier looked both him and Ziva up and down for a few seconds; clearly confused how they could devour so much and remain in such good shape. But he had a job to do, so he left the counter to gather everything his customer had asked for.

"Do you really think we can get through all of that?" Ziva asked, her eyes widening as she saw the bucket of popcorn being scooped and the keg sized cup of soda being poured.

"We?" Tony repeated bemused. "I don't know what you're having but this is all mine, I'll have got through the candy before the commercials are even over."

Ziva stared at him in disbelief. "You are about to spend more than 3 times the price of the tickets on treats and you are seriously going to eat it all to yourself?"

Tony looked her up and down for a moment; she was tiny, how much could one woman eat?

"Fine." He gave. "We can share, but the brown M&M's are mine, and you get your own straw, I don't want your spit all in my mouth."

Ziva laughed, before leaning in very close to Tony.

"I seem to recall you did not have a problem with that when we were undercover." She whispered. Tony's entire body tensed up; that was still the hottest mission he had ever been sent on. She grabbed a straw from the straw holder next to the counter and stood to the side while Tony paid the cashier and grabbed half of the theatres supply of candy.

Taking their seats in the screen Ziva turned to Tony, who was finding it far too easy to balance his giant popcorn, drink and bags of candy on his armrests; he had clearly done this more than once. "I still do not think I understand the premise of this movie." She said.

"What is not to understand?" Tony asked bemused.

"They are toys Tony, toys are not real."

"That may be, but that's really not what it's about. It's about the love of your toys; didn't you ever have a toy as a kid that you took everywhere? Or maybe a Barbie doll you liked to play with? Actually, of course you didn't I imagine daddy bought his little ninja a machine gun for her first birthday and a throwing knife for Christmas!" Tony said.

Ziva laughed loudly. "No, not quite, you have to be 8 before they let you have the machine gun." Tony hoped she was joking. "But no, I always liked my brothers' GI Joe more than Barbie, my mother never liked that but my father approved."

"Of course."

"Though I did have a bear, Levana, her name was, Daisy in your language. She was a light brown bear with velvet paws… I used to tell her all my secrets and tuck her into bed at night; I even tried to get her to eat the foods I did not like!" Ziva smiled as she reminisced about her childhood, it struck Tony that a childhood as a member of Mossad was a heck of a lot different from your average American upbringing.

"What happened to her?" Tony asked, taking a few pieces of popcorn and stuffing them in his mouth, as though enthralled by Ziva's story.

"My brother cut one of her legs off when he found my fathers' knife and my mother refused to fix her so she threw her out."

Tony's eyes grew wide. "Just like that?"

Ziva nodded.

"Didn't that make you sad?"

"Maybe, at the time." She replied, taking a piece of popcorn of her own.

"You don't still think about her?"

"She is a toy Tony, she was a toy, why would I think about her?" Ziva looked at Tony in disbelief, was he expecting her to break down over a toy she hadn't had for 25 years?

"But everyone remembers their first toy love, hell most people still _have_ their first toy love!" Tony responded, passion very evident in his voice.

"Well, I guess things are a little different between our cultures… Wait… do you still have your first "toy love"?" she asked with a grin.

"Yes!" he replied proudly. "Ruffles. He's a dog with curly fur and bean filled legs."

"And where exactly _is _"Ruffles"?"

"Oh he's in my Dads' attic, not like, in my bed or something weird." Tony quickly added. "Now that would be a problem."

"Ok, I am glad we are on the same page there." Ziva chuckled. "Can I have an M&M?" She asked changing the subject.

Tony tossed the bag to her, if he tried to open them himself his elbows would knock the popcorn over; he'd learnt that the hard way.

"Hands off the brown ones though!" he warned, narrowing his eyes.

Ziva pulled the bag open and deliberately picked out a brown one, she held it between her thumb and index finger with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Don't even _think _about it." Tony threatened.

Ziva poked her tongue through her lips and held the brown M&M close to it.

"I'm warning you."

She moved the candy until it touched her tongue gently.

"If you stop now, you will just about escape DiNozzo's wrath, trust me, you don't want to anger a man who is hungry for his candy."

With a beaming smile Ziva opened her mouth and threw the candy piece inside. Without missing a single beat Tony grabbed Ziva's jaw with his right hand and stretched his arm over the top of the soda cup with his left and wriggled his fingers into his mouth until he had dislodged the candy. Ziva's eyes were wide with shock and confusion; how had that just happened? Tony held the wet candy between his thumb and index finger the way Ziva had and smiled.

"No-one, and I mean no-one, eats my brown M&M's." he smiled before putting the candy into his mouth and chewing.

"This from a man who would not drink from the same straw as me." Ziva spoke, pulling a red and a green candy piece from the bag and throwing them into her mouth.

The lights were beginning to dim, signalling the impending start to the movie; Tony took this as his time to broach the subject he had not informed Ziva about prior to the movie. He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a plastic set of glasses. He leant over and handed them to Ziva before pulling a second pair out of the inside of his jacket pocket.

"We are at the movies; I do not need your wacky sunglasses inside." She replied handing them back to him.

"I think the term you wanted was "tacky" which by the way, my sunglasses are not. They are in fact 3D glasses."

Ziva looked at him confused.

"For the movie." He said.

"You have to wear glasses to see this film?" she asked.

"Well yeah, to see it in it's full glory."

"I do not need glasses. And we do not wear glasses when we watch DVD movies."

"They aren't for enhancing your vision; they're to make it 3D. And no we don't need them for DVDs because they aren't in 3D. This film is."

"It is a child's animated movie, what is 3D about that?"

"For God's sake Ziva just put on the glasses and watch the movie will you?" Tony sighed.

Ziva narrowed her eyes at Tony and put the glasses on her face.

"Fine. But these are really dorky, and I do not understand how they are going to make any difference to watching."

"Look, after this I will take you to see a non 3D film and you can not wear glasses all you like, but for now you need to wear them or the film will be no good."

"It is a child's movie, it is already no good." Ziva sniped.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Tony replied, putting on his own glasses and grabbing a handful of popcorn.

The movie was about halfway through, and to his surprise, Ziva had not once prodded him with some stupid comment about how ridiculous the notion of toys coming to life were, or to ask him a question about some cultural reference she didn't understand, or just generally to laugh at how childish his love for this movie was. He broke his gaze with the screen to turn and look at her; he expected to find her sleeping with her head leant against the man sitting next to them, her snoring probably deafening the poor guy. Instead he found her with her eyes widely gazing through the glasses, she had a handful of popcorn in her lap, and several pieces on her stomach and chest where she had missed her mouth, she was continually placing piece after piece into her mouth without out once looking away from the screen. She was engrossed. He smiled. He was glad he got to be the one to open her up to all of these new experiences at once; and at least she was having a good time, he would never have heard the end of it if she had hated it.

As the movie drew to a close, Tony found himself getting choked up as the characters went on a very emotional journey together. Facing near death, the possibility of being separated, parting with the person they had loved the most and then finally finding security with someone else were all experiences he had lived through in his time with NCIS, but he had the added emotion of being invested in these characters and their lives, he loved them, he'd grown up with them and he didn't want to part with them. A lump had formed in his throat but like a real man he swallowed his tears with a deep breath. Turning to his partner he couldn't help but smile as he watched a crystal line move from under her glasses down her cheek; she was crying, she had got involved with the characters and she was crying. He had shown her so many movies over the years they had been together, countless emotional tearjerkers and weepies, and not one single movie had succeeded in getting more than a "I can see why people would be sad, but I am not sucked in so easily." Yet here she was, sucked in, like all the "normal" people and at a kids' movie no less! He knew if he ever mentioned it she would probably kill him… several different ways… he was just happy to know that she had a human side after all.

"So, what did you think?" Tony asked as the two of them left the theatre.

"I liked it." Ziva said. "It is a clever premise. Very well executed."

"See, I told you you'd enjoy it! Bet you feel bad calling it just a "kids' movie" now!" Tony laughed.

"Yes, yes, I was wrong."

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you; you're going to have to speak up!" Tony joked, putting his had to his ear.

"I said I was wrong, and you are an ass!" She repeated, smacking Tony on the arm.

"Ah, I bet those words taste bitter Zee-vah!"

"Actually after all that candy all I can taste is sugar, I do not know how you can eat that much."

"Me? You ate at _least _70% of all of that!"

"I did not!"

"Please, you are practically one M&M away from a diabetic coma!"

Ziva shook her head and climbed into Tony's car.

"It did get me thinking about Levana though, I wonder if I would still have her if she had not been… dismembered."

Tony looked over at his partner as she stared straight ahead in thought. He smiled at how much she had opened up tonight, it was nice to learn a little more about her childhood, it helped de-cloud that air of mystery that followed her everywhere.

"I bet you would." He spoke gently. "Though I think maybe you would have had to hide her when you joined Mossad, hostage situations for bears can get pretty tough."

Ziva laughed.

"Thank you for bringing me here Tony; I had a really great time."

"You're welcome, thank you for accompanying me." He put the key into the ignition, started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.

The next morning Ziva stepped out of the lift at NCIS onto the bustling floor of agents. She had a happy beat playing through her iPod as she strolled to her desk. Tony had already arrived, his jacket was slumped over the back of his chair, but he wasn't at his desk; he was probably flirting with the new agent in the legal department, there had been talk about her since she arrived and Tony kept saying he'd like to scope her out. Ziva rolled her eyes as she rounded the corner of her desk and pulled out her chair. She stopped deadly still for a second as she looked down at what was on her chair.

She picked up the small light brown bear with velvet paws; it was an exact duplicate for the one she had had as a child. Wrapped around its neck was a red bow, neatly tied with a card attached. She flipped open the card and looked down at the familiar script that was written inside.

"Because everyone should remember their first toy love." It read.

Tony rounded the corner with a cup of coffee steaming in a paper cup; he hadn't been flirting after all! Ziva looked up at him with the bear in her hand; she clutched it to her chest and gently rubbed it with her index finger. She smiled at Tony, who returned the gesture and gave an acknowledging nod to her silent thank you as he took his seat behind her desk. Ziva placed the bear next to her mug and took her own seat.

"Welcome to your new home Levana." She whispered.

Tony looked up at her through his lashes as she gently rubbed the ear of her bear; she was happy, and it was because of him. He grinned before diverting his gaze to his screen and began tapping away on his keyboard.


End file.
